The obligations of disclosing information and observing statistical confidentiality, which comprise the legal bases for the activities of collection, processing, usage, and dissemination of statistical information in Madagascar, are governed by Law 67-026 of December 18, 1967.

Subject to the same sanctions, the disclosure of any individual information appearing in the official questionnaire provided for in Article 2 is prohibited, when such information pertains to personal and family life, to private facts or behaviors in general, or to finances, and can be used for purposes of tax audits or economic repression.

Article 2 of this law states that individuals and legal entities must respond accurately and within the time limits established for statistical surveys organized by an economic and statistical information development and coordination committee. Article 3 on statistical confidentiality states that employees of government agencies or professional organizations who participate in the surveys referred to in Article 2 are bound by professional secrecy, on pain of the sanctions provided for in Article 378 of the criminal code.

The law establishing the obligations of disclosing information and observing statistical confidentiality, as well as its implementing decree, were published in the official gazette of Madagascar. They were also included by INSTAT in a compendium of laws and regulations on the organization, coordination, and production of statistics in Madagascar, which was disseminated to the component agencies of the statistical system. These laws and regulations are available to the public on request.

Current statistical output is published under the sole authority of the General Director of INSTAT following validation by an internal ad hoc committee, without any reference to outside individuals or units. The same is true of the national accounts, consumer price indices, foreign trade data, and the national accounts aggregates.

No restriction is imposed regarding industries or the institutional sector. The concepts and classifications used conform to the recommendations of the ILO and the international standards (ISCO, ISIC).

Each year, the National Statistics Institute conducts a survey on employment, unemployment, and the activity status of households in the Antananarivometropolitan area. The survey involves a sample of 3,000 households and covers the Antananarivo metropolitan area. The reference period is the seven days preceding the survey.

The survey specifically targets the employed work force, defined as those who worked at least one hour during the week preceding the survey, plus those who did not work but who are normally employed and were on vacation, sick leave, strike, or temporary work stoppage, as well as all individuals who are scheduled to begin working in the month following the survey.

It also targets the population that is underemployed owing to the duration of work, defined as the population involuntarily working less than 35 hours per week, or other forms of underemployment involving an hourly wage below the legal minimum. An overall rate of underemployment is calculated as the ratio between the weight of the population affected by the two forms of underemployment or unemployment, and the work force.

The working age population includes persons 10 years of age and over.

The 2000 and 2001 surveys were extended to Madagascar’s seven largest cities; an informal sector survey and a household consumption survey were grafted onto the 2001 survey.

The employment data produced include:

distribution of employment by industry (primary, industry, commerce, services to households, other services),

The research and planning directorates of the ministerial departments, regional and international organizations (UNFPA, UNDP, World Bank, European Union, etc.), and general and central directorates of the Ministry of Economy and Finance receive a copy of publications as soon as they appear.

Other users may consult publications upon release at INSTAT’s documentation unit, or may purchase copies from the relevant units.

The methodological report on the employment survey in the Antananarivo metropolitan area provides a detailed description of the methodology. A one-page methodological summary is also provided in the brochure on employment, unemployment, and activity status in the Antananarivo metropolitan area.

Financing for extension of the survey to the entire territory (urban and rural) of Madagascar and for the introduction of an informal sector survey and a household consumption survey during the second and third phases of the survey.

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